Reviews have been apprehensive about every hot hatch that's come out in the past couple of years. The Civic is ugly; the Megane is twitchy; Volkswagens aren't fun and so on. The same goes for the new Focus ST, which is undeniably more complicated and expensive than before.
But here's the thing: Ford always makes performance cars that are in line with their times, and the Focus ST is no different. People wanted auto gearboxes, so they have that option. Big, powerful engine that can be tuned? That too.
It's hard to believe that in the era of downsizing and such, this hot hatch went bigger, sharing its 2.3-liter displacement with the Mustang and retired Focus RS. It makes 280 HP and 450 Nm of torque. Also, don't worry about the sound because it's freaking fantastic, as proven by this 3-minute sound clip from YouTuber Automann-TV.
Fans of the old model may notice the pipes are in a different place. They used to be in the middle, covered by a supercar-like tip. But now, the Focus ST has them on either side. That's not the only change. Complying with the latest emissions regulations means Ford had to add an OPF (filter), but this doesn't seem to have any negative impact on the sound.
However, we'd like to point out that the classic Focus ST Mk2 sounded better when you lift off the throttle because its 2.5-liter 5-cylinder was fruitier.
Sure, the semi-autonomous tech with lane-keep assist seems pointless here, but all the Ford Performance stuff seems like it's worth having. We're talking about a rev-matching function for the gearbox, complex road-scanning dampers, an anti-lag system, and a mechanical LSD. Heck, you don't even get some of that stuff in sports cars costing a lot of money, not to mention the hot hatch is the last bastion of manual gearboxes.
Mihnea's favorite cars have already been built, the so-called modern classics from the '80s and '90s. He also loves local car culture from all over the world, so don't be surprised to see him getting excited about weird Japanese imports, low-rider VWs out of Germany, replicas from Russia or LS swaps down in Florida. Full profile
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